Postpartum Fitness: How To Lose A Baby Belly

Tired of looking at that post-pregnancy flab on your midsection? With these tips on how to lose a baby belly, you'll be back in shape in no time

For a lot of people, the belly is one of the hardest spots on the body to lose weight. And most often, it's the last spot to lose the fat. It doesn't help that your body has gone through post pregnancy changes, but the good news is that you can still get your body back after the baby. Here are some tips that will tell you exactly how to lose a baby belly. Warning: you may find yourself digging through your closet looking for all those cut-off tops from the nineties after following these exercises.

One complaint a lot of new mothers have is that they still look pregnant. This is a perfectly normal physical reaction. After all, you've been carrying a little person around for nine months. If it took that long for your belly to expand, needless to say, it's going to take some time to get it back to the way it once looked, meaning you may find yourself carrying around a little extra (aka: a baby belly). After giving birth, hormonal changes cause your midsection to deflate like a balloon, slowly shrinking it back to pre-pregnancy state. Daily exercise can help speed up the process and help you lose a baby belly.

According to Gina Lombardi, a personal trainer in Los Angeles, in addition to performing cardiovascular activity to burn off the baby belly, crunches are necessary to tighten those stretched out abdominal muscles. She recommends starting with one set of ten repetitions and slowly working your way up to three sets of twenty. Try doing this several times a week. She also suggests bicycle crunches, where you lift your right elbow to your left knee and then switch. Perform the same amount of reps as you would regular crunches. Boost your diet with belly-fat blasting foods like oatmeal, olive oil, berries, almonds and whole grains to speed up the process of getting back your body after childbirth.

Important note: research has shown that women who don't shed the post-pregnancy weight within six months are more likely to carry it around ten to fifteen years later, which is why it's important to start exercising as soon as your doctor gives you the green light. Follow these moves that show you how to lose a baby belly and people will be amazed to find out that you were ever pregnant.

Terrible article. Some women (like myself) have trouble getting rid of the post-belly belly because of weaker inner muscles (the TAs). And NO amount of crunches in the world will fix this!!! This is a potetially dangerous and depressing article. I have been working at losing my belly for over a year (bootcamp, running, spinng and pilates). Sometimes, it just takes longer. I am appalled!

This information is not just useless, it's dangerous. Doing crunches right after pregnancy is a great way to create dome-shaped abs that are stuck that way no matter how much fat you lose.
Anybody calling themselves a "trainer" should know better than to give bad advice like this.

Pretty much, the useful information in this article could be summed up in one sentence. If you don't lose that baby weight in 6 months, you might keep it forever. I wish this article had a little more meat to it :(